In painting applications in which spray guns operated with compressed air and using solvents are used, it is inevitable for so-called “overspray” to occur. This means that the working area is contaminated with an undesirable amount of paint or paint droplets, which is also extremely harmful to the human body. It is therefore necessary to provide health protection for the workers. Breathing hoods, which can preferably be secured over the whole head and, in particular, over the whole face of the worker, are exceptionally well-suited to this purpose and offer maximum health protection. Breathing hoods of this type are generally supplied with compressed air independently of the ambient air. To this end, as a rule, first compressed air is fed to an air processing system, which first of all comprises a single-stage or a multi-stage filtration system. Subsequently, the filtered air is fed via a compressed air hose to a waist strap, or a hip belt which, as a rule, is fitted with at least one additional auxiliary air processing module. One air processing module may be an activated charcoal adsorbent, another air processing module may be an air heater module or an air humidifier module. The activated charcoal adsorbent module makes it possible to remove undesirable vapors and gases, which may still be contained in the compressed air. An air heater module and/or an air humidifier module offer(s) additional benefits for health and well-being. Another useful embodiment proposes to attach an air regulator module and an air distributor module to the waist strap or hip belt. The overall structure is generally referred to as belt unit. This type of useful belt unit is used in combination with a breathing hood known under the product name “Vision 2000” of SATA GmbH & Co. KG.
Today, users of respiratory protection systems impose increasingly higher demands on ensuring health protection and user friendliness. On the other hand, manufacturers and producers of component parts want products which can be easily manufactured, easily installed and, if necessary, easily removed.